Nov 24 2010
The land spoiled by toxins and remained barren for a number of years will be used to power over 300 homes in the New England area. The landsite owned by Western Massachusetts Electric in Pittsfield will host one of the largest solar projects.
The 6500 plus solar panels planted over the land will harness the solar energy to power the lights, computers, television sets and other electric instruments in the locality. The 1,800 kW solar plant located in Pittsfield is currently getting constructed with an investment of around $9.4 million and will have 33 rows of solar panels generating power silently.
Carl Frattini, Western Massachusetts Electric’s Director of Business Development, said that while the price of installing a lower scale rooftop solar panel costs around $8,800 per kilowatt, it is scaled down to $5,200 per kilowatt in large scale solar projects due to its increased power production and efficiency. He clarified that a legislation signed in 2008 by Gov. Deval Patrick, has assisted in the installation of a number of solar plants locally. He added that unlike the earlier ones the new law has allowed the power utilities to generate their own power from the solar plants, which in turn has resulted in the growth of more solar power plants.
According to Frattini, to overcome the problem of finding large tracts of land for installing a number of solar panels, the company is on the lookout for reasonably priced, vacant and neglected industrial and commercial lands and places that were used as landfills in the past.
Source: https://www.eversource.com/content/